(This article discusses exploratory work that was
interrupted early in 1966 when the Food and Drug
Administration, as a strategy in combating the illicit-use
problem, declared a moratorium on research with normal human
subjects. In view of the preliminary nature of the work, it
would not under ordinary circumstances have been submitted
for publication. However, because of the significance of the
hypotheses, and because they are consistent with experience
gained in a previous study of four hundred subjects who
received psychedelics in a therapy context, and because of
the hope that when it is again possible to resume psychedelic
research the non-medical applications will get long-overdue
attention, the decision was made to release these results in
their present, unfinished form.)

Amid much controversy over the place of psychedelic chemicals
in contemporary culture, we have quietly entered a third phase of
the research on human uses of these agents.
The first phase, typically identified in the literature by the
use of the adjective "psychotomimetic," was
characterized by dominance of a priori structured models.
Seriously underestimating the effects that such preconceptions
might have on the content and aftereffects of the subjective
experience, researchers variously reported that psychedelics
mimicked mental illness (when given in a setting that provoked
it), illuminated Freudian theory (when administered by a
competent Freudian), evoked Jungian archetypes (when administered
by a sensitive Jungian), substantiated the tenets of behavior
therapy (by increasing suggestibility and modifiability), and
demonstrated the soundness of the existential approach.
The second phase, adopting Osmond's neologism
"psychedelic," was characterized by an emphasis on
allowing the drug session to run its natural course, in an
attempt to minimize the influence of the conceptions and
interpretations of the therapist or monitor. Care was taken to
provide such expectations, rapport, and environment that the
experience would be as non- threatening as possible. Opinions
varied as to what constitutes optimum set and setting, and
subjects and experimenters varied. As a consequence, reported
effects range from ecstasy to psychosis, from community to
isolation, from greatly enhanced mental and perceptual abilities
to greatly impaired abilities. From this work emerged a variety
of psychotherapeutic applications, well summarized by Hoffer
(1965), as well as widespread, mainly illicit, use with sensual,
philosophical, and transcendental goals.
Growing out of this informal experimentation and clinical
research, largely as a consequence of suggestive spontaneous
occurrences, the possibility gradually emerged that specific
kinds of performance might be selectively enhanced by deliberate
structuring of psychedelic-agent administrations. Thus a third
phase of psychedelic research began. Whereas, in the first phase,
experiences tended to be controlled and delimitednever mind if
inadvertentlyby preconceptions of experimenter and subject,
and in the second phase they tended to be more uncontrolled and
wide-ranging in scope, now the emphasis was to be on deliberate
selection of specific aspects of the psychedelic experience and
of specific parameters of functioning.
As these experiments on specific performance enhancement
through directed use of the psychedelics have gone on in various
countries of the world, on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and
as, furthermore, some, at least, of the informal exploration has
been in defiance of existing laws governing use of the
psychedelic agents, publicly available information on results is
scant and scattered. In the remainder of this chapter we shall
discuss one pilot study in which the particular type of
performance chosen for attention was creative problem-solving
ability. The implications of the work are, we believe, much
broader than this particular application. Indeed, the basic
assumption underlying setting up the project, and not negated by
any of our observations during the course of the research, is
that, given appropriate conditions, the psychedelic agents can
be employed to enhance any aspect of mental performance, in the
sense of making it more operationally effective. While this
research was restricted to intellectual and artistic activity, we
believe the assumption holds true for any other mental,
perceptual, or emotional process. The psychedelic agent acts as a
facilitator, an adjunct to the situation it facilitates, neither
good nor evil, efficacious nor powerless, safe nor dangerous.

Rationale Behind the Creative Problem-Solving Study

Reports in the literature on psychedelic agents that deal with
effects on performance are inconclusive or contradictory. Changes
in performance levels have been intensively investigated, both
during and after the drug session. Instrumental learning has been
found to be impaired during the drug experience in some studies,
enhanced in others. Similarly, contradictory results have been
noted for color perception, recall and recognition,
discrimination learning, concentration, symbolic thinking, and
perceptual accuracy (Mogar, 1965a).
In some of the research, where impairment was reported, the
drug was used as a stresser with the intention of simulating
psychotic performance-impairment. Practically all of the formal
research in which improved performance was claimed subsequent to
the drug experience has been in a clinical context. Performance
enhancement during the drug experience has been sporadically
reported in both experimental and clinical research, but not in
general where the psychotomimetic orientation was dominant.
Our experience in clinical research (Mogar and Savage, 1964;
Fadiman 1965; Savage et al., 1966) had been amply convincing with
regard to the possibility of long-term performance enhancement
through employment of the psychedelic agents in a clinical
setting. We also had much evidence with regard to the subtlety
and pervasiveness of the influence of set and setting.
Furthermore, although they had not been deliberately sought,
there were numerous spontaneous incidents of what appeared to be
temporarily enhanced performance during the drug experience
itself. These observations led us to postulate the following
propositions:
1. Any human function, as generally elicited, can be performed
more effectively. This amounts to an acknowledgement that we do
not function at our full capacity.
2. The psychedelics appear to temporarily inhibit censors that
ordinarily limit the mental contents coming into conscious
awareness. The subject may, for example, discover his latent
ability to form colored imagery, to hallucinate, to recall
forgotten experiences of early childhood, to generate meaningful
symbolic presentations, etc. By leading the subject to expect
enhancement of other types of performancecreative problem
solving, learning manual or verbal skills, manipulating logical
or mathematical symbols, sensory or extrasensory perception,
memory and recalland by providing favorable preparatory and
environmental conditions, it may be possible to improve the level
of functioning in any desired respect.
3. Both objective and subjective indicators of mental
performance are appropriate to use in establishing whether there
has indeed been an improvement (or impairment) of performance. As Table 1 indicates, commonly observed
characteristics of the psychedelic experience seem to operate
both for and against the hypothesis that the drug session could
be used for performance enhancement. In this research we
attempted to provide a setting that would maximize those
characteristics that tend toward improved functioning, while
minimizing those that might hinder effective functioning.
For several reasons we chose to focus our efforts on creative
problem solving. One was its obvious utility, an important
consideration at that juncture because of the increasing pressure
for stricter regulation of the psychedelics by those who doubted
that they were good for anything at all. Another factor was that
many of the observed spontaneous occurrences had been of this
sort. Finally, because of extensive recent research activity in
the field of creativity, a number of relevant objective measures
were available for use. Interest centered on three questions:
1. Can the psychedelic experience enhance creative
problem-solving ability, and if so, what is the evidence of
enhancement?
2. Can this result in enhanced production of concrete, valid,
and feasible solutions assessable by the pragmatic criteria of
modern industry and positivistic science?
3. Working with a non-clinical population and with a
non-therapy orientation, would there nevertheless result
demonstrable long-term personality changes indicative of
continued increased creativity and self- actualization?

Procedure

The subjects in these experiments were twenty-seven males
engaged in a variety of professional occupations (sixteen
engineers, one engineer-physicist, two mathematicians, two
architects, one psychologist, one furniture designer, one
commercial artist, one sales manager, and one personnel manager).
Nineteen of the subjects had had no previous experience with
psychedelics. The following selection criteria were established:
1. Participant's occupation normally requires problem-solving
ability.
2. Participant is found to be psychologically stable as
determined by psychiatric interview- examination.
3. Participant is motivated to discover, verify, and apply
solutions within his current work capacity.
Each group of four subjects met one another during an evening
session several days before the experimental day. (In one of the
groups, one subject had to be eliminated, which left only three.)
The proposed sequence of events during the experimental session
was explained in detail. This initial meeting also served the
function of allaying apprehension and establishing rapport and
trust among the members and the staff.
Subjects were told that they would experience little or no
difficulties with distractions such as visions, involvement with
personal emotional states, and so on. The instructions emphasized
that the experience could be directed as desired. Direct
suggestions were made to encourage mental flexibility during the
session. An excerpt from those instructions is quoted below:

Some suggestions on approaches:

Try identifying with the central person, object, or
process in the problem. See how the problem looks from this
vantage point.

Try asking to "see" the solution, to visualize
how various parts might work together, to see how a certain
situation will work out in future, etc.

You will find it is possible to scan a large number of
possible solutions, ideas, data from the memory etc., much
more rapidly than usual. The "right" solution will
often appear along with a sort of intuitive
"knowing" that it is the answer sought. You will
also find that you can hold in conscious awareness a number
of ideas or pieces of data processes simultaneously, to an
uncommon extent.

You will find it is possible to "step" back from
the problem and see it in new perspective, in more basic
terms; to abandon previously tried approaches and start
afresh (since there is much less of yourself invested in
these earlier trials).

Above all, don't be timid in the ambitiousness with which
you ask questions. If you want to see the completed solution
in a three-dimensional image, or to project yourself forward
in time, or view some microscopic physical process, or view
something not visible to your physical eyes, or re-experience
some event out of the past, by all means ask. Don't let your
questions be limited by your notion of what can and what
cannot happen.

Approximately one hour of pencil-and-paper tests were
administered at this time. Subjects were told that they would
take a similar battery during the experimental session. To insure
that the problems to be worked on were appropriate for the
purpose, each participant was asked to present his selection
briefly. By the end of the preparation session, participants were
generally anticipative and at ease. They had been given a clear
picture of what to expect, as well as information on how to cope
with any difficulties that might arise.
The session day was spent as follows:
8:30 Arrive at session room
9:00 Psychedelic material given. Mescaline sulphate (200 mg).
9-12 Music played, subjects relaxed with eyes closed
12-1 Psychological tests administered
1-5 Subjects work on problems
5-6 Discussion of experience; review of solutions.
Participants were driven home after this. They were given a
sedative, which they might take if they experienced any
difficulty in sleeping. In many cases, however, they preferred to
stay up until well after midnight, continuing to work on insights
and solutions discovered earlier in the day.
Each subject wrote a subjective account of his experience
within a week after the experimental session. Approximately six
weeks after the session, subjects were administered
questionnaires that related to (1) the effects of the session on
post-session creative ability and (2) the validity and acceptance
of solutions conceived during the session. These data were in
addition to the psychometric data comparing results of the two
testing periods.

Subjective Reports

The literature on creativity includes analytical description
of the components of creative experience, the personal
characteristics of creative individuals, and the distinguishing
features of creative solutions. From the participants' reports,
it was possible to extract eleven strategies of enhanced
functioning during the session. The relationship of these
strategies to enhanced functioning should be self-explanatory.
Those readers interested in the relationship of these aspects to
current research and theory on creativity can refer to the
detailed technical discussion in Harman, McKim et al. (1966).
The factors are listed below with representative quotations
from the subjects' reports.

1. Low Inhibition and Anxiety:

"There was no fear, no worry, no sense of reputation and
competition, no envy, none of these things which in varying
degrees have always been present in my work."
"A lowered sense of personal danger; I don't feel
threatened any more, and there is no feeling of my reputation
being at stake."
"Although doing well on these problems would be fine,
failure to get ahead on them would be threatening. However, as it
turned out, on this afternoon the normal blocks in the way of
progress seemed to be absent."

2. Capacity to Restructure Problem in Larger Context:

"Looking at the same problem with (psychedelic)
materials, I was able to consider it in a much more basic way,
because I could form and keep in mind a much broader
picture."
"I could handle two or three different ideas at the same
time and keep track of each." "Normally I would
overlook many more trivial points for the sake of expediency, but
under the drug, time seemed unimportant. I faced every possible
questionable issue square in the face."
"Ability to start from the broadest general basis in the
beginning . . ."
"I returned to the original problem.... I tried, I think
consciously, to think of the problem in its totality, rather than
through the devices I had used before."

3. Enhanced Fluency and Flexibility of Ideation:

"I began to work fast, almost feverishly, to keep up with
the flow of ideas."
"I began to draw . . . my senses could not keep up with
my images . . . my hand was not fast enough . . . my eyes were
not keen enough . . . I was impatient to record the picture (it
has not faded one particle). I worked at a pace I would not have
thought I was capable of."
"I was very impressed with the ease with which ideas
appeared (it was virtually as if the world is made of ideas, and
so it is only necessary to examine any part of the world to get
an idea). I also got the feeling that creativity is an active
process in which you limit yourself and have an objective, so
there is a focus about which ideas can cluster and relate."
". . . I dismissed the original idea entirely, and
started to approach the graphic problem in a radically different
way. That was when things started to happen. All kinds of
different possibilities came to mind...."
"And the feeling during this period of profuse production
was one of joy and exuberance.... It was the pure fun of doing,
inventing, creating, and playing."

4. Heightened Capacity for Visual Imagery and Fantasy:

"Was able to move imaginary parts in relation to each
other."
". . . it was the non-specific fantasy that triggered the
idea."
"The next insight came as an image of an oyster shell,
with the mother-of-pearl shining in different colors. I
translated that in the idea of an interferometer-two layers
separated by a gap equal to the wave length it is desired to
reflect."
". . . As soon as I began to visualize the problem, one
possibility immediately occurred. A few problems with that
concept occurred, which seemed to solve themselves rather
quickly.... Visualizing the required cross section was
instantaneous."
"Somewhere along in here, I began to see an image of the
circuit. The gates themselves were little silver cones linked
together by lines. I watched the circuit flipping through its
paces.. . ."
"I began visualizing all the properties known to me that
a photon possesses and attempted to make a model for a photon....
The photon was comprised of an electron and a positron cloud
moving together in an intermeshed synchronized helical orbit....
This model was reduced for visualizing purposes to a black and
white ball propagating in a screw-like fashion through space. I
kept putting the model through all sorts of known tests."

5. Increased Ability to Concentrate:

"Was able to shut out virtually all distracting
influences."
"I was easily able to follow a train of thought to a
conclusion where normally I would have been distracted many
times."
"I was impressed with the intensity of concentration, the
forcefulness and exuberance with which I could proceed toward the
solution."
"I considered the process of photoconductivity.... I kept
asking myself, "What is light?" and subsequently,
"What is a photon?" The latter question I repeated to
myself several hundred times till it was being said automatically
in synchronism with each breath. I probably never in my life
pressured myself as intently with a question as I did this
one." "It is hard to estimate how long this problem
might have taken without the psychedelic agent, but it was the
type of problem that might never have been solved. It would have
taken a great deal of effort and racking of the brains to arrive
at what seemed to come more easily during the session."

6. Heightened Empathy with External Processes and Objects:

". . . the sense of the problem as a living thing that is
growing toward its inherent solution."
"First I somehow considered being the needle and being
bounced around in the groove."
"I spent a productive period . . . climbing down on my
retina, walking around and thinking about certain problems
relating to the mechanism of vision."
"Ability to grasp the problem in its entirety, to 'dive'
into it without reservations, almost like becoming the
problem" "Awareness of the problem itself rather than
the 'I' that is trying to solve it"

7. Heightened Empathy with People:

"It was also felt that group performance was affected in
. . . subtle ways. This may be evidence that some sort of group
action was going on all the time."
"Only at intervals did I become aware of the music.
Sometimes, when I felt the other guys listening to it; and it was
a physical feeling of them listening to it."
"Sometimes we even had the feeling of having the same
thoughts or ideas."

8. Subconscious Data More Accessible:

". . . brought about almost total recall of a course that
I had had in thermodynamics; something that I had never given any
thought about in years."
"I was in my early teens and wandering through the
gardens where I actually grew up. I felt all my prior emotions in
relation to my surroundings."

9. Association of Dissimilar Ideas:

"I had earlier devised an arrangement for beam steering
on the two-mile accelerator which reduced the amount of hardware
necessary by a factor of two.... Two weeks ago it was pointed out
to me that this scheme would steer the beam into the wall and
therefore was unacceptable. During the session, I looked at the
schematic and asked myself how could we retain the factor of two
but avoid steering into the wall. Again a flash of inspiration,
in which I thought of the word "alternate." I followed
this to its logical conclusion, which was to alternate polarities
sector by sector so the steering bias would not add but cancel. I
was extremely impressed with this solution and the way it came to
me."
"Most of the insights come by association."
"It was the last idea that I thought was remarkable
because of the way in which it developed. This idea was the
result of a fantasy that occurred during Wagner [Note: the
participant had earlier listened to Wagner's 'Ride of the
Valkyries.'].... I put down a line which seemed to embody this
[fantasy].... I later made the handle which my sketches suggested
and it had exactly the quality I was looking for.... I was very
amused at the ease with which all of this was done."

l0. Heightened Motivation to Obtain Closure:

"Had tremendous desire to obtain an elegant solution (the
most for the least) ."
"All known constraints about the problem were
simultaneously imposed as I hunted for possible solutions. It was
like an analog computer whose output could not deviate from what
was desired and whose input was continually perturbed with the
inclination toward achieving the output."
"It was almost an awareness of the 'degree of perfection'
of whatever I was doing."
"In what seemed like ten minutes, I had completed the
problem, having what I considered (and still consider) a classic
solution."

11. Visualizing the Completed Solution:

"I looked at the paper I was to draw on. I was completely
blank. I knew that I would work with a property three hundred
feet square. I drew the property lines (at a scale of one inch to
forty feet), and I looked at the outlines. I was blank.
Suddenly I saw the finished project [Note: the project was a
shopping center specializing in arts and crafts]: I did some
quick calculations . . . it would fit on the property and not
only that . . . it would meet the cost and income requirements .
. . it would park enough cars . . . it met all the requirements.
It was contemporary architecture with the richness of a cultural
heritage . . . it used history and experience but did not copy
it."
"I visualized the result I wanted and subsequently
brought the variables into play which could bring that result
about. I had great visual (mental) perceptibility; I could
imagine what was wanted, needed, or not possible with almost no
effort. I was amazed at my idealism, my visual perception, and
the rapidity with which I could operate."

Results: Subjective Ratings

As mentioned above, several weeks after the experimental
session all participants were asked to complete a brief
questionnaire. Here they rated their experience with respect to
nine characteristics relevant to enhanced functioning. Items were
rated on a five-point scale from MARKED ENHANCEMENT (+2) through
NO CHANGE (O) to MARKED IMPAIRMENT (-2) . The average ratings are
listed in Table 2. These data, too, seem to
substantiate the hypothesis of enhancement of both verbal and
non-verbal skills.

Results: Psychometric Data

Test-retest scores on some of the measures used showed
dramatic changes from normal to psychedelic-session conditions.
Most apparent were enhanced abilities to recognize patterns, to
minimize and isolate visual distractions, and to maintain visual
memory in spite of confusing changes of form and color. Specific
tests used included the Purdue Creativity, the Miller Object
Visualization, and the Witkin Embedded Figures. This last test
has been reported to be stable under a variety of experimental
interventions including stress, training, sensory isolation,
hypnosis, and the influence of a variety of drugs (Witkin et al.,
1962). With these twenty-seven subjects, enhancement was
consistent (p<.01), and in some cases improvements were as
great as 200 per cent. (For a fuller description of the
psychometric evaluation, see Harman et al., 1966.)

Long-term Results

The practical value of obtained solutions is a check against
subjective reports of accomplishment that might be attributable
to temporary euphoria. The nature of these solutions varied; they
included: (1) a new approach to the design of a vibratory
microtome, (2) a commercial building design, accepted by the
client, (3) space probe experiments devised to measure solar
properties, (4) design of a linear electron accelerator
beam-steering device, (5) engineering improvement to a magnetic
tape recorder, (6) a chair design, modeled and accepted by the
manufacturer, (7) a letterhead design, approved by the customer,
(8) a mathematical theorem regarding NOR-gate circuits, (9)
completion of a furniture-line design, (10) a new conceptual
model of a photon, which was found useful, and (11) design of a
private dwelling, approved by the client.Table 3 outlines the initial results of
attempting to apply the solutions generated in the experimental
sessions back into the industrial and academic settings of the
subjects. (These data were obtained by questionnaire and
follow-up interview six to eight weeks after the session.) A
quote for a follow-up report written several months after the
session is typical of the relative usefulness and validity of the
session-day solutions: "In the area of ionospheric source
location and layer tilt analysis, I was able in the weeks
following the session to build on the ideas generated to the
extent of working out the mathematics of the schemes proposed,
and of making them more definite. The steps made in the session
were the correct ones to start with . . . the ideas considered
and developed in the session appear as important steps, and the
period of the session as the single most productive period of
work on this problem I have had in the several months either
preceding or following the session."
Many subjects in the follow-up interview reported changes in
their modes of functioning that were continuous with the
enhancement reported for the session itself (e.g., continuing
visualization ability). Table 4 lists the result of a
questionnaire dealing with changes in work effectiveness. The results given in Table 4 indicate
that approximately half the subjects reporting were still
noticing some change in their performance level several months
after the experimental session. These results are particularly
interesting in view of the relatively low dosage and the fact
that no suggestion was made at any time that continuing changes
of this nature were expected. The deliberate anticipation of
enhanced performance level, the incitement to a high degree of
motivation, and use of a sheltered and non-critical
atmospherenone of these were directly suggestive of long-term
personality changes or permanent therapeutic benefit. Yet a
certain amount of such change seems to have occurred. One
implication is clear: We are dealing with materials and
experimental situations that have long-term effects; it would be
foolhardy and irresponsible to treat this kind of research as if
it were isolated from the fabric of the subjects' lives.

Comments and Speculations

We had originally intended to follow this pilot study with a
controlled experiment employing a double-blind design, in which a
fraction of the subjects receive an active placebo. This would
have addressed the question of whether suggestion alone could
account for the performance enhancement. Because of interruption
of the research program by government fiat, this extension was
never carried out. The need for controlled hypothesis-testing
research in this perplexing area of chemical facilitation of
mental functioning has become a common plea, and rightly so. But
equally needful of furthering is the exploratory sort of research
that aims at invention of conceptual models and hypothesis
construction. Because of the controversy surrounding use of the
psychedelic agents, this latter type of research is even more
likely to be slighted.
In the research described, we employed naive subjects. There
are clear methodological virtues accruing from the use of
untrained subjects. However, when the central question is not one
of pharmacological effects, but rather the degree to which
certain processes can be facilitated, the more experience the
subjects can gain the more we are likely to learn about the
process. Thus we would urge the desirability of further
investigations employing a series of sessions for each subject.
A similar comment holds with regard to selection of subjects.
Clinical studies already referred to indicate that those subjects
who are more stable and productive beforehand 4 tend to
"benefit considerably from the psychedelic experience along
the lines of self-actualization, richer creative experience, and
enhancement of special abilities and aptitudes" (Savage et
al., 1966). Subjects for this pilot study were deliberately
selected to be persons with known reputations as creative
individuals. In general, we would expect the outcomes of this
kind of research to be more fruitful with gifted rather than
"merely normal" subjects.
In contrast with reports of other researchers, we experienced
little difficulty in getting subjects to work on psychological
tests. Many studies seem to indicate a temporary debilitating
effect of psychedelics on higher cortical processes. It seems to
us that variables that affect results on these kinds of tests
include attitude and motivation as well as ability. We found that
discussing this problem with subjects in the preparatory meetings
eliminated any tendency in the experimental session to shrug off
the tests as meaningless or to resist them as disconcerting. In
short, on the tests, as well as in problem solving, by
establishing an anticipation of improved performance, we seemed
to obtain results that support it.
Assuming that these findings are eventually substantiated by
additional research, they find their most obvious application to
problem solving in industry, professional practice, and research.
Here the procedure could play a role similar to that played by
consultants, brainstorming, synectics, and other attempts to
augment and "unstick" the problem solver's unsuccessful
efforts. A quote from one of our subjects illustrates the
possibilities:
"I decided to drop my old line of thinking and give it a
new try. The 'mystery' of this easy dismissal and forgetting did
not strike me until later in the afternoon, because I had many
times before this session indulged in this line of thinking and
managed to work up the whole thing into an airtight deadlock, and
I had been unable to break, much less dismiss, this deadlock. The
miracle is that it came so easy and natural."
A much more important application in the long run, we believe,
is the use of the psychedelic agents as training facilitators to
gradually upgrade the performance level of already effective
personnel. This would require establishment of accepted training
procedures and certification provisions for those qualified to
use them. This may seem to be a utopian projection from our
present state, but we live in an age of rapid change, and it is
perhaps not out of the question within a decade.
Among consequences of this line of exploration, the most
significant of all, in our estimation, is the gaining of new
knowledge of the mysterious higher processes of the human mind,
the framing of new and more productive research questions, and
the eventual effect on our image of manof what he can be, and
of what he is, of the vast potentialities he has seemingly only
begun to tap.